mickroos65
Well-known member
Nice thick calf
Belgian blue cattle
- Thread starter lithuanian farmer
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Travlr
Well-known member
Good mother... beautiful calf.
Can't wait to see how she develops. My BBs out of Limo cows were beautiful too. Amazing animals.
OP
OP
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
Me too. She is as bright as she could be. Had some hard time tagging her yesterday
crossbreed
Well-known member
Looking at the pictures here, and remembering the past posts makes me wonder just what different breeds of cow you would feel comfortable crossing that bull with, and not having birthing issues?
OP
OP
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
For this black and white bull- any kind of cow if all his calves were like the ones we had. They were one of the smallest and easiest calved blue sired calves here. I wouldn't hesitate to use him on a simple limousine heifer. Of course, two calves are not enough to be 100% sure, but I feel pretty confident in him.
OP
OP
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
An update of the first blue calf of this season.
His dam is 3,5months back incalf to culard charolais this time. Held on the first AI.
His dam is 3,5months back incalf to culard charolais this time. Held on the first AI.
OP
OP
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
And forgot to mention that the sire of the 75% blue heifer is a different blue bull. That's him:
Little girl today. Nursing well. Blue calves often prove me that they are one of the most vigourous calves. Never had a dumb blue calf, which can't be said about lims.
Little girl today. Nursing well. Blue calves often prove me that they are one of the most vigourous calves. Never had a dumb blue calf, which can't be said about lims.
Your cattle look good. Thank you for posting photos and videos.
I'm curious about the myostatin gene mutation that causes double muscling. Seems an increase in muscle mass would be a desirable trait. European AI centers offer double muscled studs, but Americans seem to have little interest in double muscling. My impression is double muscling does not sell in USA. Is there a commercial market for double muscled cattle in USA? Goss Limousin {click here} offers F94L limousins, but it seems like a niche market. yes/no ??
I don't believe "weak calf syndrome" is breed specific. Is there a "hyper calf syndrome?" I have seen that, too.
I'm curious about the myostatin gene mutation that causes double muscling. Seems an increase in muscle mass would be a desirable trait. European AI centers offer double muscled studs, but Americans seem to have little interest in double muscling. My impression is double muscling does not sell in USA. Is there a commercial market for double muscled cattle in USA? Goss Limousin {click here} offers F94L limousins, but it seems like a niche market. yes/no ??
Jeanne - Simme Valley
Well-known member
USDA rejects any carcass that is double muscled. Will not grade them.
""Doubled-muscled" animals are included in the Inferior grade. Although such animals have a superior amount of muscle, they are graded U.S. Inferior because of their inability to produce carcasses with enough marbling to grade Choice."
""Doubled-muscled" animals are included in the Inferior grade. Although such animals have a superior amount of muscle, they are graded U.S. Inferior because of their inability to produce carcasses with enough marbling to grade Choice."
Travlr
Well-known member
I was heavily involved with BB in the early to late eighties. Learned a lot as I was dealing with the Belgian government in an advisory capacity through some Belgians that were involved with Peterson Industries in their genetics efforts with chickens. Peterson was shipping eggs/chicks all over the world with his own jets. One of the biggest sources of meat chicken breeding stock in the world at the time.
The Belgian government is highly involved in genetics. They support the most knowledgeable and intense animal improvement industries in the world, IMO.
By comparison... and I don't like saying it... the United States is lagging behind. Two things that the Belgians seem to be good at in their animal industries is politics and popular opinion. They don't allow these two distractors to define goals or solutions... which is why the U.S. is so fractured in our results.
Many of the people using BB semen in the eighties had poor results. Mainly because they saw BB as taking a chance so they used the semen on their least capable/poor cattle to see what would happen... and they got the expected results.
BB used on large frame animals, and in particular Holsteins, yielded better results and might have been a functional business model if sexed semen was more reliable.
The Europeans I was in contact with had a different business model than we do here. They would cross a BB with a dairy breed and retain the heifers, breeding them for one or two times to raise a calf and sending the cow to slaughter as young cows. All males and F2 heifers were terminal, and the bred F1 heifers were terminal too as their calves were all sent to slaughter.
The biggest obstacle to BB in the States though... was their coloring. Solid white blues would throw piebald, roan, and solid colored calves with no reliable color consistency. Piebald or roan BB would throw the same. American feedlot buyers couldn't see past the colors so the calves would be dinged even though superior in every way to the average American product.
I had some very good results with BB as far as calving, growth, muscling, and final product... but buyers are stuck in their own mindset and the feedlots never caught on to the economic advantages.
Muddy
Well-known member
Right! BB crosses do well in feedlots and graded choice in most cases. The kill buyers went nuts every time a double muscled slaughter cow/bull ran thru the ring and bid on them. It's true that straight Belgian blue feeders lacked the marbling, but they hold an advantage over other breeds is their ability to yield high dressing. Calf raisers will pay high prices for a BB x dairy calves opposed to straight dairy calves & dairy x beef calves. BB x Wagyu and BB x Akaushi crosses will graded prime most times. It's the color and the stereotypes stopping Belgian blues from becoming acceptable
Travlr
Well-known member
Considering the market for hamburger I'm surprised McDonalds isn't working with suppliers to use BB... but then again maybe they get plenty from dairy beef. I'm sure they've run the numbers.
I had one calf I weighed at 1050, took him back to the pasture where he was dressed out within the next couple of hours, and when he made it to the processor the carcass was weighed at 752. That's just short of 72%. And I certainly didn't find the meat objectionable in any way.
Muddy
Well-known member
That's why Belgian blue bulls are slowly becoming popular with commercial cattlemen with horned cattle (longhorns and Corrientes)….added more pounds to the calves.
OP
OP
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
An update on the latest girl.
Almost one month old.
For this one the grass was indeed more green on the other side of the fence
The dam is around 1750lbs, calf 6 months old.
Almost one month old.
For this one the grass was indeed more green on the other side of the fence
The dam is around 1750lbs, calf 6 months old.
Travlr
Well-known member
I miss my Lims with their BB calves at side. Those were the best cattle I've had,
OP
OP
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
Yes, one of the best cross you can have.
OP
OP
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
The third blue calf, 4 months old, should make a pretty heavy weanling.
So with the previous two these are all alive blue calves born this year. Lost one blue heifer due to ravens. For the next year already have one 75% blue, one 67,5% blue and one or two 50% blues baking in the bellies.
So with the previous two these are all alive blue calves born this year. Lost one blue heifer due to ravens. For the next year already have one 75% blue, one 67,5% blue and one or two 50% blues baking in the bellies.
Travlr
Well-known member
What is the cow? Angus? (X?)
OP
OP
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
Limx angusx salersx dairy
The Lithuanian farmer is raising beautiful cattle well taken care of and he is proud of them. Why would you make such a derogatory comment about this breed? It is very obnoxious!
